Various mobile communication services such as cellular telephones, using PCS or other radio frequency (RF) protocols are becoming increasingly widespread. Many consumers have gone so far as considering eliminating so-called land-line telephone service in favor of wireless services. Accordingly, for many such cellular customers, it has become increasingly desirable to obtain clear signals within the home or residence.
However, the provision of reliable wireless communication services within the customer home or residence has presented several attendant problems. Among these problems, is maintaining adequate signal gain and directionality within the residence to adequately communicate with a remote cell tower. In this regard, many residences are constructed with foil-backed insulation, such that the foil backing interferes with the reception and transmission of radio signals from inside of the residence. Often, consumers find they must stand adjacent a window or in another area which is relatively transparent to radio frequencies, or even step outside of the residence to obtain acceptable performance from the mobile communications unit or cell phone.
While some in-building communications systems have been proposed, problems remain. For example, most heretofore described in-building communications systems, that is, for distributing wireless communications signals within a building or other structure, require relatively high gain in order to adequately redistribute or repeat these signals within the structure. Such high gain can cause the system to oscillate or become unstable, producing a considerable quantity of “noise” back to the base station or cell tower. This generation of excess noise is generally unacceptable to system operators because it can interfere with overall cell tower or base station operation.
Moreover, for a consumer installation, the system should be as simple and inexpensive as possible so that installation can be done by the consumer or by relatively unskilled workers. In this regard, some problems attendant with such systems are properly positioning the various elements, properly aiming a donor antenna for optimum communications with the closest cell tower and otherwise positioning components so as to maximize isolation between respective null and donor antennas. In this regard, the system of the invention essentially comprises a repeater type of apparatus wherein the donor antenna is designated it for communication with the cell tower and the null antenna is designated it for communication with the customer equipment such as a cellular telephone or the like.